People’s Vaccine campaign
MPs Caroline Lucas and Clive Lewis and Baroness Shami Chakrabati joined Global Justice Now, Just Treatment and StopAIDS to encourage more MPs to speak out on vaccine inequality.
Scientists’ letter
In January, we helped bring together over 300 scientists to call out the government’s failure on vaccine equity describing it a ‘reckless approach to public health.’ In a letter sent to the government at the end of the month, they highlighted the risk of new variants emerging among populations who have not had access to vaccines. The scientists called for the government to back a waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments and to pressure pharmaceutical companies to share their technology and know-how. With the government continuing to bury its head in the sand, it was an important moment to remind ministers and the public that this waiver is needed urgently. The letter was signed by thirteen members of the government’s SAGE committees, a former chief executive of the NHS, and a Nobel Prize winner. Five signatories have received knighthoods or damehoods for services to 8 February/March 2022
health and science. In short, the weight of science and public health is on our side. The letter has received wide news coverage, including the BBC, the Telegraph, ITV, LBC, Metro, and Reuters. We also worked on a short video with three of the signatories, including former NHS chief executive Lord Nigel Crisp, which you can find on Global Justice Now’s social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). While highlighting the dangers of low vaccine coverage to the health of the NHS and people in the UK is important, we continue to focus on the great global unfairness of vaccine roll out. The Omicron wave has so far been less severe than others here in the UK, but it’s clear our access to vaccines has been crucial to this. While the UK government lapses into insular complacency, we can’t let anyone forget that only 10% of people in low-income countries have received a single jab.
